


Back to Murder House

by beware_of_you



Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Apocalypse, American Horror Story: Coven, American Horror Story: Murder House
Genre: Other, also fuck tate langdon lives uwu, billie dean is v gay and v protective of nora, cordelia's a softie, fuck tate langdon lives, i was crying by the end of this bc all this effort, like me too bitch u ain't special, madison is a softie, mallory is an angel, this is 13000 words I died by the time I was finishing this, u can rly tell when i gave up and just wanted to post it, violet's an angsty teen, we all needed this after the finale, we deserve more hotgomery fics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 08:38:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17505263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beware_of_you/pseuds/beware_of_you
Summary: what the ghosts at murder house rly deservedTM





	Back to Murder House

**Author's Note:**

> madison is a softie, violet is an angsty lil bitch and mallory just wants everyone to be happy bc of course she does
> 
>  
> 
> the outro prolly sucks but oh well

Mallory's eyes scan the screen in front of her, fingers typing on the keyboard with purpose, the clicks and clacks of her nails against the keyboard filling the once silent room with the noise. With some more tapping of the mouse pad and a bit more deep diving, she's finally on what she's looking for: Constance Langdon's Obituary.

She sucks in a deep breath as she reads through the short but heartfelt memoriam, the small bit of guilt she feels looking at the woman on the screen hurting her stomach (no matter how much Michael deserved his death, Mallory is sure that the boy's demise must have taken some sort of toll on the old woman).

She's not sorry for killing Michael, not by a long shot. In fact, if she had the chance to do it again, she would in a heartbeat. But she does feel bad for causing this stranger any kind of grief (although, as she's reading up on Constance, she's sure at that point in her life, the woman had suffered enough grief than anyone should ever have to endure).

Shaking her head and exhaling slowly, she opens up a new tab and begins more research, this time, on the house. Hours of research leads her to finding the address, the house's history, some documents of the past resident's such as obituaries and newspaper clippings, and (more importantly, she thinks) the house for sale on the market for about as much as one would spent on a new car.

Her lips purse at this information, sitting up straighter in her bed. Anyone who knew the house's history would be a fool to buy it, to even want the house of horrors. But Miss Robichaux's wasn't full of just anybodies.

And Mallory wasn't anyone; she had lived through the apocalypse, gone to hell and back twice, and had traveled back in time and killed the literal antichrist, saving her coven and her Supreme.

However, doing this reset everything that took place during the apocalypse, including the events that transpired within the four walls of the infamous Murder House. And while Mallory had been putting off fixing what she reset in the house, she knew that she eventually had to go there and give the spirits that were trapped there the peace and freedom they truly deserved (especially the Harmons and Moira O'Hare).

"My, you're certainly working hard over there, aren't you?"

Mallory looks up from her laptop and grins at Cordelia, who's watching her with an amused expression from the doorway. "I have to if I want to keep up with Zoe's classes," she jokes back.

Cordelia chuckles lightly, shaking her head. "Zoe likes to follow a strict curriculum, but it seems to work. Keeps the students out of trouble and helps them control their powers quickly."

"It's helped me a lot," Mallory admits, although it's only partially true. Her second time in the academy had been a lot easier on her since she already knew the rules, the lessons planned, and the spells she was to learn. She supposed it would have looked less suspicious if she struggled through as if she were a first time student (because, in this timeline, she was), but there's times where she's so happy and worry free, she breezes through the spells with ease. "Being here has helped a lot."

"I'm glad to hear that, Mallory," the Supreme says quietly, expression softening. "I hope that this place has become more like home to you over these past five months."

Mallory can't help the smile that spreads across her face at Cordelia's caring tone, at the motherly affection and love she feels radiating off her Supreme. That's one thing the young witch really admires about the woman, how much she cares for all the girls (even the new ones). She's there when the girls need help with their magic, or even personal problems, and is always, always, taking the time out of her day to check in on them at random to ensure they're all comfortable.

"Of course, Miss Cordelia. You and the others do your best to make this place feel like home, not just for me, but for everyone," Mallory answers honestly, voice catching a bit at the end of her statement (she can't help it; she really and truly loves and respects everything the Supreme does for the coven, how far she was willing to go to protect all her girls).

Cordelia smiles, biting her lip gently to keep her own emotions in check. "Thank you," she murmurs. She clears her throat to stop herself from becoming too emotional, inhaling quietly then asking, "Do you need any help with anything?"

Mallory hesitates, but only briefly, before nodding slowly. "Actually, yes, if you don't mind?"

Part of her says that telling Cordelia about Murder House is a bad idea, but the logical part of her is hoping the Supreme will appeal to her plea, will let her help the souls trapped there. And besides, if the coven purchased the house, it would be safer for everyone in the long run; no other souls would ever be trapped there again and the ghosts there could finally have some peace.

Wordlessly, the young witch turns her laptop towards the Supreme as she comes closer, clasping her fingers together nervously.

Cordelia gently grabs the device, sitting on the edge of the young girl's bed as she studies the screen with a frown. "This is the Murder House; how did you find out about this place?"

"I know the Harmon girl- well, I guess knew her- Violet," Mallory lies smoothly, trying not to feel too guilty about doing it. "We became friends through tumblr; she ran some basic angsty teenager blog but she posted really good pictures she took of the nature around her house on the side."

Cordelia clicks through the tabs without her expression changing, staring at the realtor's website. "Mallory, this place is dangerous. It's a portal between the mortal realm and Hell," she continues on, tone laced in confusion. "Why on Earth are you researching about this?"

"I need to help the spirits there, Miss Cordelia," Mallory murmurs, begging the Supreme to understand. "There's spirits there that are tormented, and they need my help, our help."

Cordelia sighs softly, biting her lip. "Mallory, we can't-"

"Forgive me for speaking out, but who else is going to help them? We're the only ones who have the ability to do anything about their situations, to help them move on."

"Mallory-"

"And I know it's not my place to determine budgets within the coven, but if we own the house, we can protect any more people from succumbing to some terrible death inside that house. We can enchant it so no one can get in and the spirits that want to stay have some peace," the nature witch begs. "Even if we can't buy the house, at least let me go and help the souls there."

"Even if we did own the house, why should I let you go there?" Cordelia asks, eyes never leaving the screen. "You are a gifted young witch, but are you certain you're powerful enough to go to this place?"

"I owe it to Violet to at least try," Mallory all but whispers, twisting her fingers to the point they grow red and numb. Please, please, please...

Cordelia sighs heavily, bringing her hands up to her temples to rub over them. She holds her hands over her eyes for a long time and Mallory thinks this entire conversation was a waste of time before- "Okay."

The young witch snaps her head towards her superior in shock. "Okay?" she murmurs in surprise.

"Okay. We'll buy the house and enchant it. And we're going there to help your friend," Cordelia finally decides, placing the laptop back on Mallory's bed.

"We?"

"I'm not letting you go to this place by yourself," the Supreme states firmly. "It's way too dangerous."

"Forgive me, Miss Cordelia, but the coven needs you here at this house," Mallory protests, mostly because she knows that once they get to the house, all her lies will be revealed and things would only become more complicated.

"I can't let you go alone!" Cordelia says incredulously. "You're not going to that house on your own, I won't allow it."

"I know, so let me go with someone on the council," Mallory replies gently. "I'll be with someone you can trust to protect me from any danger."

"Well, who do you want me to send out with you?"  
———————  
"What. A. Shithole," Madison mutters, blowing put a heavy cloud of cigarette smoke as she peers out the window at the house.

"So you've said," Mallory mumbles as she exits the car, grabbing their bags from the back of the dark SUV. She joins Madison on the sidewalk, waving to the driver as they peel away from the house.

"Your girlfriend couldn't have chosen a nicer looking house to kill herself in?" the former star asks, looking over at Mallory with a raised eyebrow.

Not for the first time since they left New Orleans, Mallory regrets dragging Madison of all people along with her. However, Mallory knew that the former star would be the one that wouldn't ask questions, nor would she tell Cordelia about her lies and everything that happens inside the house.

"She's not my girlfriend. I told you all this on the plane ride over here," Mallory sighs, waving her hand to open the front gate.

"Right," Madison drags out, throwing the remains of her cigarette onto the concrete. "If she's not your girlfriend, what exactly are we doing here again?"

"Helping some of the spirits in this house find closure and move on," Mallory reminds her patiently as they walk up the stairs to the front door. "I owe it to them."

"Whatever, Mother Nature," Madison sighs out, grabbing the key from her pocket and unlocking the door. "We better not take too long in here. We're ten minutes away from Beverly Hills and, instead of shopping over there, I'm stuck at the Haunted Mansion playing Ghost Whisperer," she moans to herself, throwing open the door.

"We won't be long," Mallory assures her. "As long as you help me do what I came here to do."

"No offense but if you wanted help, why did you bring me? I'm not exactly the person that comes to mind when someone says "helpful."

"You want to redeem yourself, ever since you came back from Hell, you've been trying to find some way to do it," Mallory answers truthfully, ignoring the chill that runs up her spine as soon as she sets foot in the house. "I know you're a good person beneath your bitchy facade, Madison, and I know that's part of the reason you agreed to come. The other part is because you want to prove you changed, prove it to Cordelia, to Queenie and Misty, and to Zoe."

"Okay, Dr Phil, I didn't ask for my life's story," Madison snaps without much bite to her words. "You just didn't want someone that would run off to the Supreme and narc on you for lying and putting yourself in danger," she adds on without much conviction.

"That's part of why I brought you, yes," Mallory admits. "But I also know how much you want to prove you changed. Besides, you agreed to come with me, no one forced you. And I asked you first, so it's not like you were my last choice."

Madison purses her lips at this and scowls at the young witch. "Whatever, let's just get this over with. This place is creeping me the hell out," she mutters, stalking past Mallory and heading up the stairs.

The two are silent as they set up the candles for the ritual (much like the other timeline, the ghosts in the house do not want to be seen by them, and need to be coaxed out of hiding if the two witches have even the slightest of chances of helping them). Occasionally, Mallory's whispers break the silence, enchanting the ingredients needed for the spell. There's a gust of wind that comes from Madison lighting the candles with a small flick of her wrist.

The two finally sit in the center of the circle of candles, Mallory murmuring softly in Latin as she brings the ritual knife to her palm, sharply inhaling as the blade slices into her skin. She clenches her fist, shuddering at the pain as blood oozes down into the small bowl between the two witches.

She softly breathes out, wrapping her wound in a small cloth before holding her hands out in front of her, palms up.

Madison looks at her hands for a few seconds before looking over at the young witch. "Are you sure this is a good idea? I have a bad feeling about this house..." she says nervously, very uncharacteristically Madison. "Are you sure they won't hurt us?"

"I'm not," comes Mallory's blunt, but honest, reply. She tucks her lower lip between her teeth and gently chews on it out of worry. "This house is really crowded, though. I doubt they'd want anyone else cluttering up the space. We're going to be quick, we're going to help the spirits we came here for, and then we're going to get the hell out of here and we don't ever have to come back, okay?"

Madison looks back down at Mallory's hands and sighs, grabbing them. "Okay, but if I die, Katniss, my spirit is going to haunt the shit out of you."

"Katniss?" Mallory asks, eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Fuck off, I'm nervous, my insults aren't going to be on point," the former Hollywood star snaps. "Let's just start this spell and hurry this along."

"Just repeat after me after the first few times, strong intent," Mallory instructs with the clearing of her throat and another sigh. "Monstra te spirituum," she starts strongly, trying her best not to wince as the pads of Madison's fingertips press into the wound on her hand. "Monstra te spirituum. Ne abscondas."

At this point, Madison joins in the chant, their voices growing stronger and louder with each utterance of the spell. As the spell passes their lips the sixth time, the candles all blow out simultaneously, causing them to both fall silent.

They both sit and wait for a moment, Madison looking around the room cautiously. "Did it-" she starts softly, voice shaking a bit.

"Yes," Mallory cuts her off just as quietly, goosebumps appearing on her arms from the intense feeling of the energy the souls are radiating, now more prominent than it was when the two witches first entered the house. "Come on, we have to find the Harmons. And the maid," she adds after a moment's pause, standing up slowly, swaying unsteadily.

Madison catches the younger witch when she stumbles, grounding her firmly with hands digging into her bicep. "You are not going to pass out and leave me to deal with whatever it is in this house on my own," she hisses.

"I'm sorry," Mallory murmurs, leaning on the older witch for support, head spinning. "I didn't know how much that spell would take out of me."

"It's not the spell. It's the energy in this house," Madison replies flatly, pressing her lips tightly together as she guides Mallory down the stairs. "Cordelia's going to skin me if anything happens to you here, snap out of it." Under her breath, she's muttering something to herself about coming with someone else, and how dangerous all this is, how this is just a waste of time.

That's when Mallory pulls away from her, steadying herself against the guard rail of the stairs. She's still a bit dizzy, but after taking a few deep breaths, she can manage standing without swaying. "This isn't a waste of time and no one else would have been able to help you," she says firmly, glaring at Madison.

The older witch, in return, rolls her eyes and lights up a cigarette, blowing the smoke in Mallory's face. "I could have brought Zoe or Swampy here and had this place cleared out five minutes ago without any lies. You know, if you don't even know any of the ghosts personally, why even bother? You don't owe anyone here anything."

Mallory's jaw locks at this, eyes narrowing, but she bites her tongue from blurting out everything. "I came here to help because it's the least I can do." I've wronged the people here, she thinks to herself tiredly. I've gotten rid of Michael, but stole their peace, their happy endings. They at least deserve that, the ending that I took away.

"You've done enough, Mallory," Madison says softly, her glare disappearing. "You had something to do with Misty coming back, and for whatever reason, you brought me back too. Don't you get it? You've done enough without putting yourself in danger. So, let's just leave before you really get yourself hurt."

"I have to stay here and help, Madison," Mallory says softly after a moment of silence. "I have to."

"Why?"

"Because I-" Mallory starts, her tone laced with frustration.

"You know, if I wanted to listen to a couple's quarrel, I would have just stayed down in the basement."

Both witches' heads snap in the direction of the voice, their eyes falling on a man in his late twenties, reclining in a chair and casually sipping on a glass of white wine. The best description that comes to Madison's mind when she first sees the spirit is "reject Property Brother", although there's a feeling Madison gets from him that makes him feel a lot more dangerous than the home improvement duo (the deep, almost naturally sinister tone of his voice does little to help her think otherwise).

"Who the hell are you?" the former star spits out without thinking, glaring at Mallory when the younger witch's elbow connects with her ribs. "Shut up," Mallory hisses out anyway, gripping the actress's arm.

The ghost looks quite bored with their exchange, closing his eyes as he brings the glass of wine to his lips, downing the rest of the drink in one go. "Someone just trying to get some peace and quiet. I'd usually be down in the basement with most of the other spirits, but the lady of the house has become... insufferable," he sighs out slowly.

Waving his empty glass around in emphasis, he continues, "Every day and night, without pause, it's "Where's my baby?" this, "Have you seen my baby?" that, "Charles, what have you done to my baby!?" and, if she's not droning on and on about that, she's always complaining about something and wailing; she's always crying. It's an absolute nuisance," he rants in his soft, yet very menacing, voice.

"I thought by coming up here, I would be able to avoid all that." He sighs heavily and eyes the two witches up and down, not even bothering to hide the look of disgust on his face as he inspects them. "But it appears that, much like everything else in this house, I can't get what I want: a man that loves me back, a family, a nice house... I can't even get some god damn silence," he mumbles this last bit to himself, refilling his glass with the bottle of wine that's sitting on the small coffee table beside the chair. "And now, I have to deal with another new set of owners that will just.... come in and fuck up my house!"

"We're here to help you, if you let us," Mallory finally addresses the spirit, hands up as a gesture of peace. "We can help you escape this house and get the rest you deserve."

The spirit takes a long gulp from his glass, glaring at the young witch past it. "You think you witches can help me? I've got news for you, Sabrina," he begins flatly. He leans up in the chair, gripping the armrests and giving a sarcastic, tight lipped smile. "You can't. The psychopath in the Blue's Clues sweater incinerated my body after he killed me, so I'm stuck here for eternity."

"Honestly, Chad, do you always have to be such a downer?" a new voice asks with a heavy sigh of her own.

Madison jumps at the sound (Mallory just turns around to face the woman that's now with them, though she's a bit confused because she is very much alive). "Jesus Christ, does anyone else in this house want to give me a fucking heart attack!?" the actress snaps, folding her arms across her chest.

The woman that joined them looks oddly like their Supreme (though Madison won't admit it aloud, Cordelia has way better eyebrows and fashion sense). Her eyes are a darker shade of brown, hair more styled, dressed in a professional, pink dress and she's perhaps a bit taller than than their Supreme (although her heels do help aid her in height). She carries a bit more confidence (maybe even a tad bit of cockiness) in her tone and posture, eyeing the spirit- Chad- without fear (instead, annoyance).

"You're alive," Mallory murmurs to the woman in shock, eyes widened a bit in surprise.

The woman smiles softly at the young girl, bringing a lit cigarette up to her lips. "I am, yes," she answers her softly. "One of the few around here," she adds as she exhales.

"Great," Chad exhales sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "I got a visit from the Twitches and the Long Island Medium today; I must be so lucky. You know, Billie Dean, if you must keep coming around here, you might as well do something useful with your time. Perhaps convincing your girlfriend down in the basement that crying 24/7 won't solve anyone's problems would be a good place to start."

"You know Nora's troubled," Billie Dean replies almost defensively, smile dropping from her face as she turns back to Chad. She points to him with her cigarette, "Don't bring her into this."

"Oh, boo hoo, we're all troubled," Chad retorts. "What are you going to do, banish me? Last time you tried, you sent that idiot teenager to scream "Croatian" in my face. And, as entertaining as that was, I rather not have to deal with that again."

"Okay, look, I don't care what problems you two have, but we didn't travel almost two thousand miles just to listen to a bunch of petty arguments," Madison finally speaks up, folding her arms across our chest (whether she's speaking out because she's Madison or doesn't sense any danger towards herself at the moment, Mallory can't tell). "As much as I want to know how the hell you got past our enchantments, I really just want to get out of this house as soon as I can. So, can one of you please tell us where the Harmons and the maid are so we can help them and get out of here?"

"I have my ways," Billie Dean murmurs, rolling her eyes one more time at Chad before looking at the two witches. "The maid is buried in the backyard, Ben Harmon resides upstairs, Vivian is in the basement, and Violet's... somewhere around here." She waves her hands, gesturing around the space. "She wonders about here and there. Couldn't say for certain where she's going to be."

Now addressing the younger witch, she says, "I was wondering when you back here, Mallory."

Madison turns to the aforementioned witch, eyebrow raised. "Do I even want to know what she means by that?"

Mallory, stunned into silence by Billie Dean's statement, just shakes her head and presses her lips together.

The former actress sighs and rolls her eyes. "Whatever, I'm going to the backyard to start looking for the maid's bones," she mumbles, walking away and towards the back of the house.

"How do you know who I am? I never met you," Mallory asks the medium, frowning a bit.

Billie Dean shrugs again, taking another hit from her cigarette. "Someone kills the antichrist, I'm going to hear about it. Word travels fast in the spirit realm, you know." She hums to herself and shakes her head, smiling. "Sorry, where are my manners. My name is Billie Dean Howard- Medium to the Stars."

"Well, that explains why you can see him," Mallory murmurs in realization, glancing briefly over to Chad, who makes a face in response.

"Believe me, if I had a choice, she wouldn't be able to see me."

"How exactly did you get past the gates?" the young witch asks suspiciously. "And what did you mean when you said come back?"

"Like I said, I have my ways. Much like you, I'm drawn to the energy of this house," she answers simply, smirking slightly at the second question. "And I know much more than many give me credit for; I know you killed Michael and I know you stopped the apocalypse. You saved a lot of people; I knew it was only a matter of time before you came back here to redo what you undid."

"Translation: she's a nosy little know-it-all weasel," Chad inputs (not so helpfully).

Billie Dean sighs heavily and glares at him over her shoulder. "We could do without your commentary, Chad."

"Am I stupid for coming back here?" Mallory asks quietly, interrupting the ghost before he could say anything to the medium.

Billie Dean shrugs her shoulders and taps out her ashes in a nearby ashtray. "Couldn't say, dear; I'm a medium, not a psychic- I can't see the future. Though I think most of the spirits here have a more positive opinion on you than anything; Michael wasn't exactly popular amongst the residents here, especially as he grew older." She chuckles once to herself, before continuing. "Constance was relieved to see him gone; he became too much to her. She won't have any problem with you for sure. Though, I'm not sure how long that will last once she finds out you're not helping Tate."

"He shot and killed over a dozen people, brutally murdered the house owners a few years back and was single handedly responsible for the creation of the antichrist," Mallory says dryly. "I'm not helping him; he doesn't deserve it and Violet deserves better."

Closing her eyes as she takes another puff, Billie Dean hums as she nods, "That's fair, I suppose. Like I said, just don't let Constance know."

"You better go out and help your friend, though. She might be the one you have to worry the most about right now," she changes topics, glancing up the staircase quickly to ensure Constance wasn't anywhere near,

"I'm not scared of Madison. She can handle it for a few more seconds," Mallory states flatly. She goes to say something when Billie Dean opens her eyes, eyebrow raised.

"You can't keep me from this house, not matter what spells you put on it. I have been coming and going to this house for years and some little enchantments aren't going to stop me from doing just that."

Mallory deflates a bit, furrowing her eyebrows. "We can't keep you safe here."

Waving her hand nonchalantly and cracking a small smile, Billie Dean puts out her cigarette. "I'll be fine, don't worry about it. I can take care of myself here."

The young witch nods once and rubs her wrist, heading towards the back door without a parting word.

"Good luck," the medium calls after her, waiting until the witch is outside before she flips Chad off and drifts down to the basement.

"Finally!" Madison cries out as soon as Mallory steps into the backyard. The older witch was in front of a small hole that she had begun digging with her telekinesis. The nature witch looks at the pitiful hole and then back at Madison with mild annoyance. "Really?"

"What?" the actress asks defensively. She looks at her nails with a scowl. "I am not digging in heels and I'm certainly not getting dirt under my nails. I did as much as I could before you got out here- you can get the rest." She smirks, looking at Mallory with an expression of faux innocence. "Unless you want me to fill Cordy in with all the little plot holes you neglected to mention in the story you told her..."

Mallory sighs heavily, glaring over at the older witch briefly before locking her jaw. She raises her hands over the area, walking around until she gets a hit (it's more like a pull of energy from Moira's bones, a sharp tug on her senses that makes her arms tingle and her ears ring). Sighing softly when she feels just that, she brings her hands back down to her sides.

"You got a shovel?" she asks without looking up from the area that called to her.

The item in question flies into her chest, causing her to yelp and glare sharply over at Madison.

"Sorry," the actress says with a smirk, not sounding the least bit apologetic.

The young witch sighs, mutters about bringing someone else or going solo, but her mumbling is soon drowned out by the sound of her shovel hitting solid earth over and over again.

Madison light up another cigarette and watches with a bored expression. "We're going to be here for-fucking-ever."  
————————  
The two find Moira in the kitchen, cleaning the counter slowly, shoulders haunched over in defeat. She's tense, especially when she hears the two witches behind her, both silenced by the despair waving off the ghost like a strong perfume. "What do you witches want?" she asks tensely, without looking over at the two. "I could sense your magic since you walked into the house. Are you here to hurt me?"

She sets down the rag and looks at the witches tiredly. "By all means, if you're going to banish me to hell, make it quick, will you? I've suffered enough."

Mallory opens her mouth to comfort the spirit, but Madison beats her to it. "We're not here to hurt you. We want to help you," she says in a soft, gentle voice.

Moira looks uncertainly at the actress, glancing over at Mallory just as cautiously before her gaze returns. "What are you going to do to me?" she asks timidly.

Without another word, Madison hands over the small bag she's carrying to the old soul.

Moira glances up at the both of them once more before she opens the bag and gasps, tears forming in her eyes at the sight. "Oh, heavens be. My bones!"

She steadies the bag in one hand, stifling a soft sob with the back of her hand. "Oh, I can't begin to thank you," she says tearfully, looking over at them with a grateful smile. "These bones are my means to escape!"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," she whispers as she falls to her knees. She cautiously weaves her arms around Madison's waist, leaning her tear soaked face into the witch. "Thank you. Thank you."

Mallory isn't sure if it's because Madison is so surprised at the ghost's reaction, or if she just let her guard slip and her humanity to show, but Madison gently pats Moira on the head. The young witch even thinks she hears the actress whisper out a choked, "You're welcome," but doesn't comment on it.

"Moira," she calls out softly, her own voice choked up from the spirit's reaction. "Where do you want to be buried?"

Moira looks over at Mallory before looking back down at the bag of her bones with a soft smile. "There's only one place I've ever wanted to be."  
————————  
The two spent longer than they probably should digging at Molly O'Hara's grave, taking turns to gently dig through the soil with their magic over the course of a few hours (they didn't need to worry about getting caught; Madison had charmed cemetery security into leaving the area alone for as long as they needed). They only stop digging when they see the vinyl of the casket, Mallory using telekinesis to gently lift in Moira's bones and setting them softly on top of the box.

She sits at the edge of the hole with a soft sigh, feeling some sort of ease for the first time since the two had landed in LA. The atmosphere around them was more relaxed, more peaceful than that of the house. With the way Madison sits beside her, body relaxed and aura calm, Mallory figures that this is what the two of them really need before they go back and have to resolve the conflict in the Harmon family.

They just need to be in a place like this to clear their heads and souls, feel a small sense of accomplishment that they finally gave Moira what she deserves.

"So, you killed the antichrist, huh?"

Mallory does jump a bit at the suddenness of hearing Madison speak, of what she said. She turns to the older witch, expression unreadable.

Madison lights up a cigarette and crosses her legs, refusing to look at her. "I meant it when I said Cordelia would flip her shit on me if something happened to you in that house; I wasn't about to leave you alone in there with Ted Bundy and the television psychic. I hid behind the wall and listened to everything you talked about."

Mallory stays silent, biting the inside of her cheek nervously. Well shit.

As Madison exhales (away from the grave, at least) she continues speaking, sounding a bit tired, frustrated. "Is this something else you're not going to tell me about? I can add it to the growing list of lies I'm keeping track of, but it's becoming repetitive and I-"

"Tempus infinituum," Mallory cuts her off in a whisper, resolve breaking.

There was no use lying her way out of this one- she couldn't. Not when Madison had heard too much (and besides, how much longer was she expecting to keep everything so quiet; she was already feeling guilty for lying so much to Cordelia and Madison, why keep going?)

Cigarette halfway up to her parted lips, Madison pauses, looks over at the young witch with furrowed brows. "What?"

Mallory sighs, shoulders slumped. Her fingers play with the blades of grass below, and her gaze focuses on that instead of Madison's intense gaze. "Tempus infinituum," she repeats a bit louder, voice shaking slightly.

There's a long pause, neither witch speaking before she continues. "Remember a few weeks ago when you and Misty took a group of us back out to the swamps to collect herbs for class and we came across that mutilated deer? Tempus infinituum is how I was able to bring it back, restore it to its youth," she explains softly.

She gently grips the blades beneath her fingertips gently, biting on her lip. "It's how I came back and killed Michael, the antichrist." She knows her brief explanation won't cut it, but in the moment, it's all she can get out.

"Came back?" Madison asks, clearly confused. "What the hell does that even mean?"

Mallory focuses on a weeping willow a few yards away instead of Madison, struggling to find the right words to say. "I... It means... This is..." she tries for a few seconds before sighing again. "You died," she ends up replying, clasping her hands together nervously in her lap now.

"I could have told you that," Madison says with a sarcastic roll of her eyes, but when she sees how tense Mallory has become, and how the girl has started trembling slightly because of her nerves, she softens. "Hey, I'm sorry, okay? I just think it would be beneficial for the both of us if you're honest with me, but I can't force you to say anything. But this, whatever it is, has you fucked up..." she trails off, putting her cigarette out in the dirt.

"It's a long story," Mallory says quietly, watching the older witch for a moment before looking down at Moira's bones.

"I'm in no hurry to go back to that house," Madison replies just as softly. "I won't tell Cordelia anything either, and I won't say anything bitchy as you talk, I promise."

"I should probably tell Cordelia anyway, maybe have a council meeting when we go back," the young witch admits, rubbing along her knuckles: a nervous tick. "You all deserve to know what happened."

"Whenever you're ready," Madison coaxes, and it's so unusual to see her like this, but Mallory doesn't think it's bizarre. She finds the actress's softness to be welcoming, offering her the courage she needs to speak out on what happened.

So, with another soft, long sigh, she begins. "We're essentially living in an alternate timeline," she says cautiously, mentally mocking herself for how stupid she sounds. "What I mean to say is that there's a lot of things I already know because I've experienced them before."

"Tempus infinituum?" Madison murmurs, voice raising up at the end of her statement in question.

Mallory nods. "It was a power that was only rumored to exist in ancient spell books. But it's something I possess and it allowed me to come back from- I don't know, an alternate timeline, I guess- to what we're living now."

She brings her feet out of the hole and tucks them under herself. "I still came to the academy the same way- in the other timeline, I mean. But things were different; you were still gone, Misty and Queenie too, and then Michael came along... Cordelia could sense he was dangerous and brought Myrtle for her guidance. He brought you and Queenie back, the warlocks wanted him to attempt the Seven Wonders because Cordelia was fading, and she let him and he brought back Misty but then you and another warlock came to the house and fixed everything we came to fix. But then Michael killed everyone at the academy, banished their souls so Cordelia couldn't bring them back; everyone but you, Myrtle, Cordelia, Coco and I died and then Coco and I were put under an identity spell because I was rising as Supreme. Myrtle knew I could use my powers to go back and kill Michael, but had to test me first and then we were put under a spell and sent to a bunker because the god damn apocalypse happened. Michael showed up then you three showed up and so many people died trying to protect me from Michael so I could perform tempus infinituum; you sacrificed yourself, so did Coco and Cordelia but because she did, I was able to go back and kill Michael and now we're living in this timeline where none of that happened because I killed the antichrist before he became too powerful but I also reset everything that happened in that house- well except for Tate, but I guess you overhead that too- anyway so now we're here to fix it."

Mallory finishes with a long breath; she feels her explanation was a jumbled mess that probably made no sense halfway through. And it was a very brief summary of what happened, but she does feel better that all of this is now out in the open, that she was finally honest about everything.

Madison looks like she's still trying to process everything, breaking apart Mallory's hurried speech carefully in her head. But the only thing that comes out is, "Is that how you brought me and Misty back?"

The young witch can't help but smile a bit at that. "I got blazing street cred in the underworld for killing the spawn of satan, so Papa Legba owed me a few favors. You more than redeemed yourself when you died for the sake of the coven in the other timeline. You both deserved to come back."

Her face falls again as she sighs, biting down on her lip. "I didn't tell anyone about what happened, what I stopped because I didn't know how to even begin to talk about it, but you guys deserve to know and I'm sorry I'm just now telling you about this and I'm sorry that this is heavy information, but I had to tell you."

"You don't have to be sorry," Madison replies gently. "And, yeah, this is a lot of shit to process, but it's important to know what happened, what you did for the coven." She stands up with a soft grunt, pushing herself up right with her palms. "We all owe you," she adds as she helps Mallory up.

Mallory frowns gently, brushing dirt off her palms. "I don't want to be thanked, I just didn't want to lie anymore. I don't deserve-"

"I know it's not why you told me and I know it's not what you want from the others," the actress cuts off the younger witch's protests. "You do deserve recognition for what you've done."

"I'm just glad you're all safe again," Mallory murmurs honestly. "That's all I wanted."

"So stop feeling so guilty for keeping it in, for lying. Everyone will understand," Madison tells her, glancing down in the hole once more. "I hope she's found her peace," she says quietly, waving her hand to knock all the dirt back over the remains.

Dusting her hands off, she looks over at Mallory. "If it means anything, thank you, for using one of your favors to get me out of retail hell. That shit really sucked."

Mallory genuinely smiles at this, at Madison's disgusted tone near the end of her statement. "As annoying as you can be sometimes, I think I would have missed you too much if I let you stay down there for too long," she replies teasingly, her smile growing when the actress rolls her eyes in response.

But Madison is smiling when she shakes her head and sighs. "Whatever, let's get back to the house and finish what we started."  
————————  
The two find Ben Harmon isolated in an office upstairs, quietly sobbing out the window with his hand still in his pants. Madison makes a face and turns away from the scene, arms folded across her chest. "Miss Cleo could have warned us he was a tear jerker," she mutters in disgust. She glares gently at Mallory when she gets elbowed in the ribs, but doesn't object further than that.

Ben sighs when he hears her, jaw locking. "Doesn't anyone bother knocking anymore?" he asks hoarsely, tiredly, fixing his pants before he turns to face the witches. His expression goes blank before he scowls over at Mallory. "You," he starts accusingly, tone almost as dark as Chad's. "You're the bitch that ran over my son!"

Mallory opens her mouth to defend herself, to explain the situation, but Ben cuts her off, not done with his rant.

"He was the only one in this house who could have made it out there, lived a good life!" the man continues on, eyes burning with tears. "My wife and daughter are dead, I couldn't help them. I can't help them." His voice cracks, eyes water. "Michael was my one chance to help someone, my one chance to not fail as my job as a father, and you took that away from me!"

"He was the antichrist!" Madison says exasperatedly, throwing her hands out in front of herself.

Mallory throws her hand out sharply towards Madison, a sharp, unspoken demand of her to keep her mouth shut. She throws the actress a glance over her shoulder (the same look Cordelia often casts at her, and Madison wonders if its because the girl before her is destined to be the next Supreme that is part of the reason she actually feels intimidated by it) and her jaw clenches, keeping quiet.

Mallory turns back to Ben, expression softened. "You knew who Michael was, what he was capable of," she tells him gently. "He was evil; nothing you would have done could have helped him."

Ben tenses, jaw locking. "I could have tried," he says quietly. "You could have let me try."

Mallory swallows hard, but refuses to feel guilty for what she's done to Michael, no matter how broken Ben sounds. "He would have hurt everyone you loved," Mallory murmurs. "He was evil personified; all the love in the world wouldn't have changed him."

"You can't possibly know that," Ben scoffs, turning his head sharply away from the witches, but they don't fail to notice the tears now streaming down his cheeks.

"Did it work with Tate?"

Both Mallory and Ben whip towards Madison, who's staring at the man with a soft, sympathetic gaze.

"Excuse me?" Ben asks her, frowning.

"Did all that time you spend with Tate help him?" Madison repeats gently, softly. Mallory watches her carefully, but stays quiet and doesn't glare at her; just lets her continue with what she's saying.

"Tate can't be helped," he retorts slowly, sounding lost now. "Michael..."

"Is the same," Madison finishes for him in that same, soft voice. "All your time and energy would have been wasted for nothing and you would have only felt worse about yourself when he continued down his father's path."

Ben runs a hand through his hair, staring off past them with his lip trembling. "But-"

"You're not his father, Ben. We all know it," Madison cuts him off patiently. "He's not you; you're trying to be good."

"I just wanted to be a better father," Ben says tiredly, shoulders slumping forward in defeat. "I failed miserably in life as a husband and a father. I screwed up so much and so many times. I just wanted the chance to make it up, to finally be a good father."

"There's still time," Madison reminds him gently. "You have eternity to make it up to your wife... your daughter... your other son."

"I don't even know how to begin," he says hopelessly. "My wife doesn't even talk to me anymore."

"You can start by saying you're sorry," a new voice calls out softly from the doorway. Mallory doesn't even have to look to know that the voice belongs to Vivien Harmon.

"Viv?" Ben asks in disbelief, his voice coming out as a cracked whisper as he stares at his wife. "Are we talking again?" he asks in a timid, broken whisper.

Vivien's eyes look sad, tired, arms folded across her chest. "I don't know yet," she answers honestly.

"I'm sorry," Ben whispers, brushing past the two witches to get closer to his wife. "I never stopped loving you," he says quieter, and the two witches look away from the scene to give the ghosts some kind of privacy.

"I know," Vivien said just as softly, grasping Ben's hands when he reaches out for her. "But I never stopped hating him; even when he was born I could sense something off about him, something evil, something I could never love. And I never stopped hating you for wanting to help him, to save him when he couldn't be saved."

"I abandoned you for my own selfish reasons," Ben agrees, bringing on hand up to wipe away his tears. "I'm sorry. I really thought I could help him."

"Nothing you could have done would have worked," Vivien murmurs. "He was evil, Ben, he couldn't have been helped."

"I was so stupid," Ben sniffles.

Vivien nods in response, looking down at their interlocked hands. "You were, but you were trying to do what you thought was right."

"Tell me what's right now, I'll do it," he begs, his thumb rubbing circles on the back of her hand. "I'll do anything to make it up to you, I promise."

Both heads turn in the direction of the stairs, where the distinct sound of a baby wailing calls out from below.

Vivien is the first to break her gaze away and look back at Ben. "You can start by being there for us, for your family. We need you Ben, I need you. I can't do this alone."

"You won't," Ben swears quickly, cupping her face in his his hands carefully. "I promise, I'm going to try to be a better husband, a better father. I'll do whatever it takes, even if I have spend all of eternity to make it up to you, to Violet, to our son." He seals his promise with a soft kiss to his wife's forehead, which causes her to briefly close her eyes.

"Your son needs you," Vivien finally murmurs gently, letting her hand gently caress his face. "Go to him."

With a small nod, he breaks away from her and walks off down the stairs. She watches after him for a few minutes, before turning to look at Mallory.

"Thank you for getting rid of Michael, even if you didn't do it for us," she says softly once Ben is out of earshot.

Mallory nods once in response, watching after the woman as she follows Ben down the stairs.

"Well, that was easy," Madison mutters after a moment of silence, arms folded across her chest and gaze still fixed on where the two ghosts used to be. "They did all the hard work for us."

"Yeah," Mallory breathes out distractedly, eyebrows furrowing and lower lip worrying between her teeth.

She wondered if the same would be said for Violet.  
————————  
As Mallory expects, Violet Harmon is extremely difficult to find.

Every single room the two witches look in don't show any signs of the teen, not even a signature of her energy. At one point, Madison suggests looking in the basement, but Mallory grabs her wrist before she had even begun to go towards the door.

"What? The medium went down there!" Madison had protested, whipping around impatiently to face the younger witch. At this point, she just wants to hurry on with their final task and get far away from the house, the uneasiness that's constantly looming over them in the house becoming tiresome. "We'll be safe."

Mallory had shook her head, firmly planting herself in place. "They know her down there; she'll be fine. We won't be. Magic or no magic, we're out numbered down there."

She had looked around the room then, at that moment, eyes darting cautiously around at the sudden energy she feels (whether it's the teenager they sought after or not, she can't tell) "Violet's a reclusive spirit; she wouldn't be down there with everyone anyway," she reasoned with Madison.

The actress had then sighed and folded her arms across her chest. "You so owe me that day in Beverly Hills once we're done here," she had mumbled, reluctantly heading away from the basement.

After another hour of searching, Mallory starts to wonder if they really should have gone to the basement, if she had been wrong about Violet's spirit. Or perhaps she was just avoiding the witches as best as she could, cautious of their motives, moving just out of range for them to sense her every time they got too close for comfort.

Mallory sits back on the bed in Violet's room with a long, drawn out sigh (or, at least what she assumed to be her room; she had found the teen's old journal shoved beneath the mattress, and Madison had found the girl's old CDs stacked in a box in the closet). She's tried to use divination on the journal she found, but that just showed her the room they were in, only confirming their suspicions.

Madison thumbs through the CDs absentmindedly, none of the names on the fronts standing out to her (well, maybe Nirvana, but she honestly thought up until that point that it was just some edgy clothing brand, and who the hell were The Ramones?). "These all sound like something my dad would listen to," she comments, picking up another Nirvana CD, showing it to Mallory casually. "I mean, who even are these people, you know?"

Mallory lifts her head to acknowledge the actress, eyes glancing over the familiar CD cover before she smiles in recognition. "I love some Nirvana from time to time. They're like one of the biggest rock bands ever, haven't you ever heard of them?"

Madison shakes her head, pressing her lips together with a frown, refusing to say what she really thought Nirvana was to spare herself the humiliation.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit?" Mallory offers up the familiar title.

The older witch does seem to recognize this, confused frown dropping from her face. "Ah," she hums, setting the CD down gently. "Yeah, dad music," she confirms. "No offense, but I never really thought that kind of music would ever be something you would listen to."

Mallory raises an eyebrow at this comment; not really offended, just curious.

Madison elaborates without looking over at the young witch. "I don't know, you seem like a mini Misty. Like you would be out in the middle of the forest, twirling around to Stevie Nicks or something rather than sitting around and listening to this kind of stuff."

Mallory shrugs as she lays back, head resting on the pillow as she stares up at the ceiling. "I guess my music taste is just influenced on whatever you guys have playing at home. Zoe listens to Nirvana sometimes," she explains softly. "I listen to Eminem because of you."

Madison can't help but feel a little smug at this, a small smirk appearing on her face. "Good, at least someone is insuring you listen to someone decent and don't entirely have the music taste of a fifty year old lesbian." She peers over at Mallory to see her reaction, but instead just frowns and raises an eyebrow at the girl (who looks like she's on the verge of unconsciousness). "You're seriously taking a nap right now? I mean, I get it, we had a long day, but, damn you must be exhausted if you can even think about sleeping in this hell hole."

Mallory turns her head to acknowledge Madison, opening one eye with an unamused expression. "I'm not sleeping. I'm trying to look for Violet," she explains. When Madison stares back at her like she's gone bat shit insane, she sighs heavily, laying back on the bed. "It's a spell that allows your soul to be free of your body so I can roam around undetected. Cordelia did it when she was trying to find Zoe and Queenie's souls back at the academy. I guess it's like lucid dreaming, except I only have a short time to make it back."

"Is that even safe?"

"I don't know," she repeats quietly, trying to focus. When the only thing she sees is the blackness behind her eyelids staring back at her, she opens her eyes with another sigh, this one softer, less drawn out. She grabs the journal off the bedside table without sitting up, gripping the book to her chest tightly.

She concentrates on the feel of the faux leather cover and the pages, the smell of the worn material, the energy of the object in her hands. "Spiritu duce, in me est. Deduc me in tensbrjs vita ad extremum, ut salutaret 'nferi," she mouths, the words barely coming out as sounds. It's the same spell the coven uses for Descensum, but without uttering the last word, the spell merely allows the soul to become separate from the body. Rather than condemning herself to another trip to Hell, Mallory would allow her soul to wonder freely throughout the house to explore more freely, without being noticed by the others.

"Concentrate, intention," she reminds herself when nothing happens, relaxing her breathing until she actually feels like she's about to fall asleep.

Her grip only tightens on the book as she repeats the words, only knows that she's succeeded when she feels her soul actually being thrust out of her body (yeah, it is like lucid dreaming in a way). She opens her eyes and sees herself in the bed, Madison looking over at her in concern because she's gone stiff and her breathing is shallow, but the actress doesn't make a move to stop her or wake her up.

Yet.

Under the spell, Mallory is able to travel freely around the house, through walls and floors without being detected by the spirits in the house. She uses this to her advantage, traveling down to the basement first to look for Violet.

That part of the house, as it turns out, is more crowded than either witch could have anticipated. The amount of spirits down in the basement is nearly suffocating and Mallory wonders why they all choose to settle down there when its so packed.

They all seem to be doing their own thing, like they all had assigned sections that they kept to. The young witch even spots Billie Dean, who is walking freely around the basement with a taller blonde with a pretty gruesome exit wound on the back of her head (they seem to be the only ones without a sense of boundaries, but no other spirit pays them any attention).

The one spirit Mallory notes is missing, however, is the very one she's looking for.

So, she keeps looking.

Room after room leaves her feeling more and more convinced that they would never find Violet, that the one spirit Mallory wants to contact and help out the most will never get the happy ending she so deserves.

What's worse is she can hear Madison starting to get worried, feel her concern even from the other side of the house. Her panicked voice carries always down the stairs, but merely sounds like an echo in Mallory's ear. She knows her body must be acting up, writhing around like she's having a seizure, she can hear her own gasps of breath and figures she has seconds to get back up to her body again.

Then, she's suddenly in a room the two witches haven't even explored yet, and her eyes light up when she sees the ghost they were searching so hard for huddled up in a concrete space by the house's furnace. She's holding her knees to her chest, sobbing heavily, but very much there.

Malloy had found Violet Harmon.

"Mallory? Mallory!"

Madison's voice is a shrill whisper in her ear, an eerie echo.

She closes her eyes, concentrates hard and...

"Mallory!? Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Mallory sits up in the bed with a sharp gasp, flinging herself unintentionally into Madison's shaking hands. She feels the blood leaking from her eyes from the exertion, from the amount of magic she had just exhibited. She's breathing as if she's just finished running for her life, lungs burning as they fill with oxygen.

To Madison's credit, she doesn't scream at her, doesn't yell, but she does tremble a lot as she looks over Mallory's face, as the young witch catches her breath. The actress keeps her hands to herself other than the initial grab of her shoulders. Her face is full of concern, of worry, and if Mallory really wants to call her out on it, her eyes are filled with tears that are just threatening to spill.

"Are you okay?" Madison asks timidly, hands patting herself down until she lands on the small bag she's been carrying. She pulls out a small, smooth cloth, offering it to the young witch to clean off the blood. "You were having a seizure; I thought you died."

Mallory takes it with a small nod, gently dabbing the blood that's on her cheeks, close to her eyes as she can get. "I'm fine," she finally says, still a bit breathless. "I'm sorry."

Madison's jaw locks slightly, refusing to let herself cry, to show weakness like this. She sharply inhales, blinking hard a few times before she speaks again, more composed. "Did you find her? Violet?"

"I'm sorry," Mallory repeats in a softer voice, reaching out to touch Madison's arm. "Really, I am. I didn't mean to scare you."

"You can't die on me," the older witch replies in a small voice, shoulders slumping. "Cordelia will kick my ass if you're hurt under my watch, remember?" she tries to joke, but the nature witch can tell by her tone, by the look in her eyes that she cares for her, cares that the girl could have possibly been hurt.

"I won't get hurt," Mallory promises. "I'm fine, really. Besides, I can't keep on my promise to take you to Beverly Hills if I'm dead, right?" she adds lightly, nudging the actress's arm.

Madison does smile a bit at this, visibly relaxing slightly at the playfulness of her tone. "Yeah, okay. But no more funny business. Don't do something stupid that will end up getting you killed; you're not going to be the Supreme anytime soon and I'm not exactly the best person to bring you back."

"Scout's honor," Mallory mumbles.

The older witch raises an eyebrow at her tone, but presses her lips together to stop herself from commenting on it. She focuses, instead, on the task at hand. "So, you found Violet?"

Mallory nods.

"Where?"

The young witch looks once over Madison and stops briefly at the heels she's wearing with a grimace, before looking back up at her with an almost apologetic smile. "Somewhere that requires you to lose those shoes if you even have a chance of reaching it."

Madison looks at her quizzically, facial expression becoming blank as the answer dwells on her. She groans with a frown.

She's in the crawl space that's only accessible from under the house.

The actress sighs heavily.

"Fuck."  
————————  
"Ew, ew!" Madison whimpers quietly, swatting yet another cobweb from in front of her face. She squeaks softly as she stumbles back, falling on her bottom and nearly hitting her head off the pipes above. "This sucks," she hisses to Mallory as the young witch passes her up, looking in much better shape than her superior.

Madison, to put it lightly, is a disaster. Her knees and palms are covered in dirt, tiny pebbles sticking into her skin. Her hair is a mess from the humidity and the numerous cobwebs she failed to swat away in time. She has tiny bruises forming on her legs, scratches on her arms from carelessly swiping away the bugs that crawled onto her. And don't even get her started on how much her feet are killing her, sensitive to the sharp rocks and uneven ground beneath them.

If her reactions weren't so over the top, Mallory would almost feel a bit guilty for dragging the actress down here with her. "We're almost there," she promises her softly, turning back to give her a reassuring smile. "It's just a bit further up here."

"How are you so good at crawling around in this place?" Madison asks in disbelief as she continues on with a sigh. "I'm getting my ass kicked by this house and you don't have a mark on you."

Mallory shrugs almost casually, shoulders barely missing a huge cobweb. "I used to play around in my crawl space at home when I was younger."

Madison rolls her eyes, but the action has long since lost the bitterness behind it. "Why am I not sur-" she starts, nearly running into the young witch when she abruptly stops.

"Sh," Mallory cuts her off sharply when she sees an opening ahead, a drop off into a concrete room. Her eyes are locked at the pale light, the hand outstretched to stop Madison trembling. "I don't want to scare Violet," she breathes out the explanation to her.

The actress nods once, jaw locking nervously.

They wait a second, wait until they hear the soft sobbing (just to confirm Violet was there) before they go cautiously forward. Mallory slips through the small opening first, landing on the tips of her feet as softly as she can. 

Her eyes are locked on the ghost the whole time, as if she's waiting for her to take off and run. But Violet remains in her ball, clearly having not even heard the nature witch enter.

Madison's entrance is a little less graceful, coming a little too far forward and nearly slipping out of the damn hole.

Violet does hear this, though, head snapping up and locking on the two witches. Her expression is tired, but cautious and even a bit fearful. Madison locks eyes with her and freezes, as if she stays still, the ghost can't see her.

Bu the teen does and her voice is raw, rough with tears as she asks, "Who are you? What do you want? How did you find me?"

Mallory has her hands up, a plea for her not to bolt off on her lips because she does not want the one ghost they spent literally half the day trying to find to disappear, but Violet's attention is stolen when Madison produces a cigarette from her pocket, eyes glued on it. "Can I have one?" she asks, cutting off Mallory before the nature witch even has a chance to start talking.

Madison flinches a little, surprised that the teen is addressing her. Wordlessly, she bobs the hand holding the cigarette once, as if looking for confirmation that this is what she wants.

"Please? I haven't had one in so long; no one around here smokes," Violet says softly, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "Well, Constance does, but she already hates me for not talking to Tate."

Madison turns to Mallory, obviously feeling a little conflicted.

The teen rolls her eyes at this and frowns. "Come on, it's not like I'll get lung cancer and die. I'm already dead."

The actress has a retort ready to go (something along the lines of calling Violet an "absolute peach") but holds her tongue with one glance over at Mallory, who's still as tense as she was when she came into the room. So she hands the cigarette over to the teen and lights it up for her with a flick of her wrist before the girl has a chance to ask either of them if they had a lighter or matches.

Violet's eyes flash briefly and she tenses a bit from the shock, from the way the cigarette in her fingers abruptly lights, but she doesn't run off. Instead, she hums a bit, bringing the cigarette to her lips. "So, you're the witches that everyone's been talking about."

Mallory's lower lip trembles slightly, as if this bit of information being known so suddenly will make the girl vanish. Madison gives the younger witch a soft, reassuring glance before she looks back at the teen. Folding her arms across her chest, she says as nonchalantly as possible, "How did you find out about us? We haven't seen you around with the others all day."

Violet shrugs her shoulders, wrapping her free arm around her knees and holding them to her chest as she exhales. "I overheard the craigslist psychic tell Nora about you guys. Thin walls," she adds, gesturing around with her cigarette. "Sometimes, you can hear the people in the basement from here."

She exhales again, holding the cigarette a few inches from her face, the smoke swirling up towards the ceiling. "No one else comes in here, so it's a nice place to be."

"Are you scared of us?" Mallory finally asks, almost timidly.

Violet raises an eyebrow at her, almost amused. "No; you did give me a cigarette, after all. Though, I don't really know what you want from me. I don't know anything that you could want."

Mallory seems to relax at her admission, straightening her posture and the worried expression falling from her face. Her voice is still soft, though, as she answers Violet. "We just want to help you, that's all."

The teen quirks an eyebrow at this, too perplexed to even finish bringing the cigarette back to her lips. "Help me?"

Both witches nod in confirmation.

Violet scoffs, jaw clenching and turning her face sharply away from them. "No offense, but you can't help me. You don't know what I want."

Madison turns to Mallory at the teen's sharp words, studying the nature witch. Violet had a point; they had no idea what she wanted, not without also giving Tate the redemption Mallory was so adamant on refusing. Because, with the information Mallory had told her, the other timeline had the actress giving them each other as their so called "happy ending".

Mallory is either really confident in herself or bullshitting herself deeper into a corner, because she just says, "But I do know what you want."

Violet looks at her disbelievingly, and Mallory can see the dumbfounded look Madison is giving her out of the corner of her eye, but she knows the one thing the teen wants, the only thing she's ever wanted since she's died.

"Tate?" Violet guesses with a disgusted look on her face. "I spend every single day trying to avoid h-"

"That's not what you want," Mallory cuts her off gently, shaking her head as she kneels to Violet's level. "Not really. You hate that you still like him, and the last thing you want is to be vulnerable enough to want to take him back."

The teen glares at her, but the witch doesn't back down. "What do I want then?" she challenges.

"To live," Mallory replies gently.

Violet almost laughs back in her face, hiding her unamused smile into her shoulder. "You can't give me that," she retorts with a hurt chuckle. "No one can give me that."

While she's less than thrilled about what the younger witch is offering Violet, Madison speaks up to defend her. "You don't know what we're capable of. What she's capable of," she tells the teen.

Violet rolls her eyes, tapping the cigarette on the ground firmly to put it out. "Just because you guys can control fire and cast a spell to spy on us doesn't mean you're powerful enough to bring me back to life," she says bitterly.

Mallory glances around the room, pushing herself up with her palms and heading over to the area she was focused on. Ignoring the weird look Madison is giving her and Violet's scoff, she bends over and picks up something before she comes back over to the two.

She kneels back down and holds out something in her palms, out far enough for both the spirit and the older witch to see. She can hear a disgusted grunt from Violet and a shocked inhale from Madison when they realize what it is: a very dead, very dry, nearly skeletal mouse corpse. It had to have been dead for months, possibly even longer for it to look like that. It's gross, but its the perfect chance for the young Supreme to show the spirit the extent of her ability, the extent of the help she could give.

Mallory uses her other hand to cover up the mouse, closing her eyes and murmuring the familiar Latin she mastered in both timelines. There's a rush of energy between her palms, the soft feeling of fur against her palms, and a tiny, wet nose pressing against her fingers. When she hears a soft, barely audible squeak, she opens her eyes and uncovers the mouse.

And though she's seen Mallory's impressive use of her skill before, Madison gasps ("the deer in the woods wasn't that dead," she thinks), nearly jumping back at the now very alive mouse in the young witch's hand. Violet even seems shocked, head whipping up towards Madison with a surprised look, as if to ask "you can't do that too?".

The actress shakes her head once, eyes following the mouse as it scampers off when Mallory sets it down. "We normally can't do that," she manages to explain to Violet. "I- we can only bring things back to life if it's recently deceased."

Even softer, she adds, "But even then, we sometimes fall short. If she can do that..." Madison trails off, looking at Mallory with an impressed expression. "Damn," is all she's able to say, offering the young witch some hand sanitizer.

Violet is silent for a long time, eyes still looking in the direction the mouse ran. 

Finally, "What about my parents?" she asks timidly, eyes welling up with more tears. However, unlike before, Violet's tone seems more hopeful.

"They just want you to be happy," Mallory tells her honestly, rubbing her hands together until they're dried of the sanitizer. "That's all they ever wanted."

"Where will I- Who will I- How do I explain why I was missing for four years?" Violet asks, the frown on her face deepening. "Constance told the police I ran off with my other brother... How will I explain Michael? My age- I'll still be seventeen for fucksake!"

Mallory smiles a bit, as if she already has this all figured out (she does, but she's too humble to admit to that). "We put you under an identity spell, give you some false memories about what happened to you, to Michael. And I can restore you to the right age. You can get in contact with your aunt, or we can give you a place to stay for a bit."

Violet seems all a bit overwhelmed by all of this (in a good way), a genuine smile finally appearing on her face. But then it drops slightly into a small, sad frown. "I won't be able to stay here?"

Mallory shakes her head apologetically. "It's too dangerous to be here with Tate," she explains softly. "He'll find a way to hurt you and make you stay here for good."

"Can I come by and visit?" she asks hopefully, almost pleadingly.

This time, Madison shakes her head, but her tone is just as soft and gentle. "Once you're under the identity spell, you'll remember what the spell wants you to," she murmurs. "You'll know your parents died, but you won't remember that they did in this house. It's safer for you that way. Your parents just want you to be happy, and they know you aren't here. They know that they have to let you go for you to move on."

Violet nods slowly in understanding, but she looks conflicted.

"We won't do anything you don't want us to do," Mallory assures the teen (and as crushed as the young witch will be if Violet refuses their help now, she'll understand and can't, no, won't force the ghost to do anything).

Violet looks between the two witches with a lower lip tucked between her teeth. Then she freezes a bit, closing her eyes as if in deep thought. Her lip trembles, tugs up at the corners a bit, and maybe Mallory and Madison don't understand what's happening, don't fully understand the ghosts and their methods of communication, but they look away in silence, letting the girl have this moment.

When Violet opens her eyes, she seems calmer, more at peace. "Okay," she says quietly.

"Okay?" Mallory asks, trying not to sound too excited. "You want this?"

The teen nods, smiling gently. "Yeah, I do."  
————————  
The two watch on in peaceful silence as Violet heads off past the gates, glancing back and offering the witches a small wave and a huge smile. Madison and Mallory reciprocate the actions, both feeling proud and content with how this trip played out.

After finding Violet's body, putting her under the identity spell and implanting the false memories in her mind, the newly revived teen was able to contact her aunt in Florida.

After the initial shock of hearing from Violet (and the minor annoyance of having to make sure Violet Harmon was once again on the radar and the small matter of dealing with the police [hell, the girl had been missing, assumed dead, for four years, but a small spell Madison casts easily sweeps the huge news under the rug]), Vivien's sister eagerly offers her niece a place to stay.

Mallory does give Violet her number incase the woman eventually brings up Michael and the witch has to do a minor spell on her to forget the boy (and Madison does tease her for this, but knows very well the only reason Mallory does this is for Michael, and that all she wants of Violet is for her to live the life she's been given back).

"I'm so glad we're done with that house," Madison sighs out as she follows Mallory back out to their awaiting uber.

"Well..." Mallory starts, but grins when the actress shoots her a playful glare. "I'm kidding; we don't ever have to go back there. We fixed everything that needed to be fixed."

Madison narrows her eyes and gently elbows the young witch in the ribs. "Good. You couldn't pay me to go back into that house willingly- I don't understand how the medium does it."

Mallory shrugs, sliding in the backseat of the car. "Love makes people do stupid things, I guess."

Madison makes a face as she climbs in after her. "I don't care how good the sex is. No one will ever make me crazy enough to go back there," she swears.

Mallory laughs a bit at this, buckling herself up. "We won't have to go back there ever again," she repeats honestly. "So, Beverly Hills?" she offers before Madison could go on more about the house.

The actress' eyes light up a bit, but she smirks innocently. "We're here for a few more days and I'm exhausted. I just want to go back to the hotel, order a bottle of wine on your card, and relax."

"On my card?" Mallory repeats with a grimace.

Madison nods and smiles sweetly at her, expression full of faux innocence. "After all, you did drag me out here, Minipreme."

Mallory sighs a bit, but there's no trace of annoyance or sadness in the sound. "You're gonna spend the last few days making my life a living hell, aren't you?"

"If your definition of "living hell" is shopping in the most luxurious shops on the west coast and buying wine on your card, then yes I am. Sue me."

Mallory rolls her eyes playfully and groans. "I'm so glad I used one of my favors to bring you back," she murmurs jokingly.

Madison simply grins in response. "Payback's a bitch, isn't it?"


End file.
